When Karen and Brian Colautti-Pine purchased their 1917 house in the Riverdale neighborhood of Toronto, they were drawn to its charm. "It's kind of a cross between Victorian and Craftsman styles," says Karen. But the three-bedroom, three bath home also had problems. "At one point it was a boarding house," Karen explains. "It had been renovated poorly at various times and was in pretty bad shape when we bought it." Since then, however, the couple has slowly transformed it by making budget-smart improvements, room by room.

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Among their most notable redos are the master bathroom and powder room. "When we finally decided what to do with the kitchen, we figured we should also redo the upstairs master bathroom and the guest bath directly below it," says Karen. The couple saved time and footwork by doing everything at once, and got price deals on plumbing supplies. And since Karen and Brian are not only determined home improvers but talented craftspeople as well, they did the entire renovation themselves over five months.

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The 7x10-foot master bath upstairs was the first to be gutted. The couple peeled off the decaying remnants of previous renovations, then carefully removed its porcelain tub, sink and toilet, which were in good enough condition to keep. Next they ripped out worn wall tile, which left some gaps in the walls. And they also tore off layers of old floor tile and linoleum until reaching the original wooden subfloor.

Stripped to the bones, the space was ready for its makeover. The couple began by patching the holes, adding insulation and covering the walls with white beadboard. For a timeless look, Karen chose black-and-white mosaic tiles for the floor, which she and Brian set in a classic diamond pattern. "When we bought the house, the sink and toilet in the master bath were squeezed in under the window," Karen recalls. The couple spaced out these fixtures more sensibly against the wall opposite the tub. They also retained the room's original window, but created new window casing millwork as well as baseboard molding. Finally, they placed a new shower over the tub, put up a crisp white shower curtain, and hung a ready-made window curtain in front of the window.

For Karen and Brian, one of the house's main attractions was its conveniently placed first-floor powder room. This room, like others in the house, had changed much over time. "It was once a pantry," says Karen. Since there were no bedrooms on that level, its shower seemed superfluous, so the couple eliminated it, shrinking the bath to 456 feet and adding the bonus square footage to their kitchen remodel. In gutting the bath, they removed its 12 x 12-inch floor tiles carefully, then reused them in the laundry room. The room's small existing window needed replacement. "But we didn't want to have to replace the header, so we put in a new frosted-glass window that was the same size," says Karen.

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Another budget-smart step the couple took to improve the room was to install the same flooring that they used for the kitchen. "It's a laminate that looks like an old wooden barn floor," says Karen. Also, as in the master bath, she and Brian crafted the window casing and baseboard molding—and even built a combination shelf and dowel directly above a new toile tieback curtain. Although the couple purchased a new pedestal sink, mirror, shelf and sconces, they recycled and repositioned the original toilet. Throughout both baths, new faucets and handles freshened up all of the recycled fixtures.

Living with gutted-out spaces for several months—and trekking down to the basement bathroom to wash dishes as well as bathe—proved worthwhile, in light of what Karen and Brian achieved. "I have really expensive taste," Karen confides. "I just don't want to have to pay for it."